Idole d’Armani

Holy Noses I am Dying!

I’ve decided to look for what is possibly THE most elusive item in a lady’s fragrance collection. The Every-Day Perfume.

Having quickly decided that Michael Kors was too good to waste on the office and Jo Malone too expensive, I embarked on my EDP mission with a view to achieving three simple goals

1. Effortless Elegance

2. Longevity

3. Can i pronounce its name without sounding like a knobhead?

Effortless elegance was not going to be a problem. Stand next to the Calvin Klein counter, move three paces right and up ten quid, and you’re golden. Idole d’Armani was my fragrance of choice. Mimi Frou, who writes Another Less Good Perfume Blog describes it thus

“Idole d’Armani is, as it turns out, is a sociologically interesting and fine-smelling attempt to conciliate the olfactory codes of fast and fickle love and slow and enduring one in the sphere of perfumes.”

What I gather from this, is that Mimi Frou is a twat. She does however present a strong case for preventing perfume writing from making the leap to the mainstream. Well done Mimi.

I hadn’t realised, when i chose to review this fragrance as a potential EDP that Armani had in fact intended to create this perfume as a signature scent for women. “As a real tribute to femininity, a big thank you to all the women who have inspired [Armani] over the years”.

Well, a better thank you might have been to give us the stuff for nothing. Still. 

Putting our personal differences aside, however, Big G really did strike gold with this one. I love a fragrance which has a faintly soapy undertone, and this is deliciously feminine without being either overtly sickly or overtly sexy.

Longevity, on the other hand, the holy grail for all would-be EDPs was going to require some stringent testing. This being Saturday night, and me being 26, sociable and, if not hot, then at least in possession of the makeup and underwear to fake it, I had big plans. Fortunately one of those Music Channels that isn’t MTV or VH1 was running a 4 hour marathon of Britain’s Top 100 Wedding Songs. I settled in.

Fair play, Idole d’Armani lasted effortlessly throughout numbers 79-50. It even survived a change into the pyjamas, some left over paella and two glasses of wine. By number 39 (Westlife- The Rose) she’d settled into a really warm, comforting scent that seemed to wrap me up, but didn’t overwhelm the room. At around number 27 (Foreigner- I Want to Know What Love Is) responding to a palpable absence of junk food in the house, I made myself a buttered-digestive-biscuit-sandwich. By number 18 (Sinead O’Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U) I’d fashioned a crude buttered-digestive-biscuit-sandwich-tower, and still Idole D’Armani remained.

Beardy called just before the top ten and after trying (and failing) to convince him I was in a club (“Sweetie, what club plays Toni Braxton – Unbreak My Heart?) and then a wedding (“Baby, if you’re at a wedding, why are you eating buttered digestive biscuit sandwiches?”) I realised I was too drunk to lie, and concentrated instead on playing a solo game of Jenga with my biscuit-sandwich-tower while Beardy talked about something else.

By number 5 (Lonestar – Amazed) I’d decided that Idole D’Armani could survive anything. By number 3 (Bryan Adams – Everything I Do) I’d proved that this included photocopying my own head using my parents’ new scanner. I’d found my winner.

As for the “Can I pronounce its name without sounding like a knobhead?” part of the test: I decided that in order to avoid another “Hermes – Un Jardin Sur Le Nil” debacle, i could, for now, just say casually, “I’m wearing Armani…you know, the newest one.” Problem solved.

Number One (Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You) found me slumped amongst the remnants of my buttered-digestive-biscuit-sandwich-tower in a forlorn but fragrant mess. Idole D’Armani. Highly Recommended.

Love

x Heapnose x